PASSING OF THE FEDERAL PASTURE 



greater distances between food and drink, 

 treading to death square miles of precious 

 forage. 



When pasture becomes too poor for cat- 

 tle, sheep are brought in, being able to live 

 where cattle would die. Sheep easily eat 

 herbage out by the roots, killing even peren- 

 nial grasses. Goats, too, have been intro- 

 duced, which destroy shrubs by nipping 

 their foliage; and hogs, which dig up and 

 devour the roots. 



As the larger carnivora were extermi- 

 nated, rabbits, prairie dogs, and gophers 

 multiplied into serious plagues. Five jack 

 rabbits or 20 prairie dogs consume as much 

 grass as a sheep. Prairie dogs not only eat 

 what grows, but spoil the land itself. There 

 are prairie dog settlements having 2,000 or 

 even 5,000 of the nuisances to the square 

 mile, where sand, clay, and "gumbo" over- 

 spread and render useless all the good soil. 

 Vegetable as well as animal scourges come 

 in. While grass which cattle love is kept 

 from seeding, the prickly-pear cactus, thorn 

 bushes, shrubs, and weeds which they avoid 



43 



